Unbiased headline news for Monday April 15, 2024 – The Israeli Defense Force has eased homefront command guidelines after closing schools and limiting gatherings ahead of Iran’s missile strike Saturday.

“It was decided to restore educational activities across Israel,” the IDF said in a statement early Monday, local time. The changes went into effect at midnight, according to Israel’s Home Front Command. Communities near the northern border and the Gaza Strip can also resume educational activities “in subject with restrictions.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that during a Sunday call between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders there was “consensus” that Congress needs to act quickly to send aid to both Israel and Ukraine.

Schumer said at a news conference in New York that “hopefully” something can be accomplished this coming week to aid both countries. Earlier Sunday, Biden spoke to Senate Majority Leader Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In the aftermath of the unprecedented airstrikes by Iran against Israel, President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in a reprisal strike on Iran.

Mr. Biden, who spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday, condemned the Iranian assault while making clear that the U.S. had “helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles,” according to a White House House statement. Mr. Biden said he reaffirmed to Netanyahu the U.S.’s “ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security.

Four people are dead after the vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a train in rural Idaho Saturday, authorities said.

Idaho State Police said the pickup was carrying a 38-year-old man, 36-year-old woman and two children, who were all from Nampa. The vehicle was traveling on a private road that intersected a railroad crossing, but the driver failed to yield and the pickup was struck by a train, state police said.

One child was killed, and ten other people, including three other children, were injured in a shooting in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood Saturday evening, police said.

The shooting happened around 9:20 p.m. near West 52nd Street and South Damen Avenue, Chicago police said. The victims were at a family gathering when the shooting happened. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert of 18 rounds fired and found multiple people shot on the block, police said.

Four people were arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of two Oklahoma women.

Veronica Butler, 27; and Jilian Kelley, 39, of Hugoton, Kansas, went to pick up Butler’s children for a birthday party in Kansas but never showed up. On Saturday, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people. They were charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

Authorities are searching for a missing crew member who went overboard Friday from a Holland America cruise ship.

Deputies with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office Port Everglades District responded around 11:18 a.m. Saturday to a report of a missing crew member on the Rotterdam cruise ship. The ship was sailing eastward along the Florida Keys at the tail end of a six-night Caribbean cruise when the incident happened.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed two controversial bills that he says will buffer law enforcement from “anti-police activists.”

SB 184 sets a 25-foot “no-go” zone around police and first responders who are “engaged in the lawful performance of a legal duty.” People in violation of the rule will receive a verbal warning. Failure to comply will result in a second-degree misdemeanor.

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